ABSTRACT
Over the last twenty years, there has been much encouragement of multi-disciplinary teamwork to meet the needs of children with special educational needs. The writers of both The Court Report (DHSS, 1976) and The Warnock Report (DES, 1978) recognised the importance of professionals working together to define and meet the needs of children and both reports contributed considerably to the development of practices subsequently. Despite the interest, genuine teamwork of a multi-disciplinary nature has been very difficult to achieve. It is relatively easy to argue for a unified approach to the needs of children, but quite another for this to happen in practice. Tomlinson wonders whether we are being naive asking for it all. ‘The development of extended multi-professional assessments, advocated by both the Court and Warnock Reports … assumes an unrealistic degree of communication, co-operation and absence of professional conflicts and jealousies’ (Tomlinson, 1982, p.31). Although Tomlinson’s view is helpful in that it encourages a deeper study of the possible barriers to working across disciplines and specialisms, members of teams need practical guidance on how to overcome these problems. It is not enough to exhort professionals to work together and then leave them to it. Staff need both time and training to make best use of each other’s skills and experience.
